Evidence: The Layover EP

Evidence is best known for his work with Dilated Peoples, a group that’s done as much as anyone to prove that supposedly alternative, backpacker/conscious rap can be just as formulaic and easy as their more banging, party-loving, popular peers, so it’s no surprise that his solo disc, the full-length The Layover EP doesn’t do much to distinguish itself from, well, anything. It would be overly harsh to call it bad, but it seems about right to call it boring: over frankly lounge-y, often painfully obvious production — why, yes, those are church bells ringing out at the end of “For Whom the Bell Tolls” — Evidence and a host of guests let slip capably-smooth-if-rarely-clever lyrics about, well, pretty much whatever, with a slight bent to the general backpacker topics, though with little new or interesting about what they’re saying. In the end its name proves pretty apt: like waiting for an airplane, it’s nothing really worth getting worked up over, but something you’d probably rather not sit through regardless.